A prototype Windows smartphone has a flexible display for durability and convenience.

A prototype Windows smartphone has a flexible display for durability and convenience.

Photo: Jae C. Hong, Associated Press

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The International Consumer Electronics Show features a paper-thin and bendable touch sensor called XSense, under development by Atmel Corp.

The International Consumer Electronics Show features a paper-thin and bendable touch sensor called XSense, under development by Atmel Corp.

Photo: -, Atmel Corporation

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LAS VEGAS, NV - JANUARY 09: Brian Berkeley, Samsung Electronics senior vice president of Samsung's display lab, shows a prototype of the YOUM Flexible display during a keynote address at the 2013 International CES at The Venetian on January 9, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada. CES, the world's largest annual consumer technology trade show, runs through January 11 and is expected to feature 3,100 exhibitors showing off their latest products and services to about 150,000 attendees. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Las Vegas -- Flat-screen displays for every sort of device have dominated the landscape at the annual consumer electronics show for a decade.

But this year's International Consumer Electronics Show provides hints of a future that includes displays and touch controls that are curved.

Samsung provided one example by displaying what the South Korean electronics giant called the world's first curved OLED ultrahigh-definition TV monitor.

But that prototype product is just the tip of the iceberg. Advances in flexible glass and in thin, flexible touch sensors that can roll up like a newspaper point to a day, for example, when a mobile phone or tablet's control screens can be bent around the device's sides and back. That could mean, for example, a bigger touch-screen area than is now possible.

And gamers could have a monitor that wraps around them for an immersive, 360-degree view.

Or a car steering wheel could have touch or display controls built in.

Flexible displays

Given enough imagination, engineers could figure out how touch controls or displays could be helpful on the curved handle of a cup of coffee, said Mariel van Tatenhove, marketing director for touch materials for San Jose's Atmel Corp., a developer of microcontrollers, capacitive touch controllers and touch sensors.

"We used to think the world was flat, but it's not," said van Tatenhove, who was showing off the company's paper-thin and bendable touch sensor called XSense. "Why shouldn't devices be either?"

Analyst Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies of Campbell included flexible displays as part of a panel discussion on upcoming disruptive technologies.

That could be especially true with a growing number of ordinary appliances being turned into Internet-connected devices that would require a non-flat display.

At CES, for example, there were motion-sensor trash cans and faucets, and Bluetooth-enabled forks and front-door locks.

"Imagine if the display can conform to its environment rather than the other way around," said James Clappin, president of Corning Glass Technologies. "Imaging gaming in a seamless, panoramic, virtual world."

The company, known for its strong Gorilla Glass used on mobile phones and tablets, is developing a thin, flexible, lightweight product called Willow Glass.

That's not to say that glass will be designed to constantly bend back and forth, but rather it will be able to conform during the manufacturing process to the shape of devices.

"Other than fiber optics, the world is not accustomed to glass bending," Clappin said.

Reaching mass market

Willow has a thickness of 100 microns and can be bent to a diameter of about 6 inches, said Dipak Chowdhury, a division vice president and director for the Willow program.

The glass could be placed on top of a layer of thin, bendable touch sensors to turn any surface into a touch display. Corning hopes to start producing touch displays with Willow glass later this year, Chowdhury said.

Atmel's XSense has a thickness of 50 microns, or 0.5 millimeter, van Tatenhove said. She demonstrated how the plastic film could be rolled up.

Computer maker Asus announced this week at CES that it will use XSense for a new-generation touch-controlled tablet, but "we see touch as only the beginning," she said.

Corning's James Clappin said there's still work to be done developing the manufacturing processes before conformable glass products reach the mass market.

"It's hard to predict how fast the ecosystem will evolve," he said. "We think it's the future."

Google has received a ton of notice for its experiments with a self-driving car, and Audi demonstrated a self-driving A7 in Las Vegas this week.

Assisting drivers

But are such vehicles too far out into the future, or can they realistically be expected to safely replace drivers? A Lexus executive had some interesting thoughts on that while showing a prototype ES Hybrid at CES. The prototype had an array of gizmos attached to the roof, just like Google's test fleet of self-driving cars, which includes a Lexus, an Audi and a Toyota Prius.

Lexus, Toyota's luxury brand, isn't trying to build a car that drives itself. Instead, it's using test facilities in Japan and Ann Arbor, Mich., to develop safety technology that helps, not replaces, drivers, said Mark Templin, Lexus group vice president and general manager.

"Technology is important, but technology alone is not the answer," Templin said. "We see traffic safety as a holistic blend of people, vehicles and the driving environment.

"Our vision is not necessarily a car that drives itself, but instead a car that is equipped with an intelligent, always attentive co-pilot whose skills contribute to safer driving," he said.

Current models have collision-warning systems that automatically activate shocks, steering controls and brakes.

Reacting to road

But the prototype had advanced GPS, forward and side-facing radar, high-def color cameras, 360-degree laser tracking and sensors like a gyroscope and accelerometer.

"Our goal is a system that constantly perceives, processes and responds to its surroundings, scans the movement of objects around it, identifies a green light from a red light and measures the trajectory, roll, pitch and yaw of the vehicle as it steers, accelerates and brakes," Templin said.

It must be noted that Lexus markets its cars, which cost more than their Toyota cousins, by emphasizing an elevated driving experience. What kind of driving experience can there be if they take the driver out of the equation?